Hello, I'm MJ Saunders, the President of
Florida Atlantic University, and I want to welcome you to the first
"Inside FAU" edition of the new year. Twenty-eleven is a very
exciting year for us because it marks the University's FIFTIETH
ANNIVERSARY!

In 1961, the Florida Legislature allocated one hundred
thousand dollars to establish the state's fifth university on an
abandoned army airfield in Boca Raton. Thanks to the dedication and
generosity of local residents, led by banker Tom Fleming, enough
additional money was raised to open the doors of FAU in the fall of
1964.

President Lyndon Johnson officiated at the opening ceremony,
making FAU one of the few universities in American history to be
dedicated by a sitting President of the United States.

The University's 867-member founding student body took
classes on a treeless campus that still had a number of World War
Two-era buildings on it. Even during those early days, FAU students
were served by a faculty of outstanding scholars who were totally
focused on giving them a top-quality higher education experience.

Nearly a half-century has passed since that historic opening
day, and Florida Atlantic University has grown into an academic
force to be reckoned with.

Today's record-high number of 28,000 undergraduate and
graduate students are taking classes on seven beautiful campuses
and sites stretching from Dania Beach to Fort Pierce.

Just this month we saw dramatic evidence that FAU is rapidly
becoming a university of first choice when applications for our
twenty-eleven freshman class surged past the twenty-thousand mark!
This is more than double the number of applications that had come
in by this time last year.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my
predecessor, President Frank Brogan, and the Board of Trustees for
making the very wise strategic decisions that laid the groundwork
for the growth our University is experiencing. Thanks to their
vision and the support of our dedicated faculty, FAU is becoming
more and more attractive to students as a university of
first-choice.

We recently made the exciting announcement that FAU is
launching its own independent medical school.

The Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine expects to welcome
its first class of 64 medical students this coming fall. They will
have the opportunity to study not only for M.D. degrees, but also
for dual M.D./Ph.D. degrees through FAU's partnership with the
Kellogg School of Science and Technology, a top-ranked institution
that is affiliated with The Scripps Research Institute.

FAU's medical school will be housed on the Boca Raton campus
in the Charles E. Schmidt Biomedical Science Center, a
state-of-the-art facility that offers students a technologically
advanced learning environment.

This new program greatly strengthens the ability of our
University to provide a pathway to a medical degree for aspiring
doctors right here in our own community and give them the kind of
training that will enable them to render services of real value to
patients. This is a proud moment for Florida Atlantic University,
and I am so glad that we are all here to celebrate it together.

Speaking of pride, that is exactly what most of us are
feeling as we watch FAU stadium take shape on the north side of the
Boca Raton campus.

It seems to be coming out of the ground at lightning speed.
You can monitor its progress via a webcam that posts pictures
online every 15 minutes. Just go to
www.faustadium.com and
click on the "Multimedia" link. Season tickets are already on sale
and can be purchased on this site.

As much as I love football, I want to stress that the
decision to build a stadium was based upon a vision that goes
beyond winning games.

One of the most important goals in our strategic plan is to
develop ways of keeping students at FAU from freshman year through
graduation. We serve our students best when we provide the
resources they need to move steadily through their academic
programs and earn their degrees. Many studies have shown that
students who become deeply involved in campus life are much more
likely to stay at a university through graduation than those who do
not take part in activities outside the classroom. An on-campus
stadium will do a great deal to energize student life at FAU, and
that will serve the greater purpose of keeping them on track toward
their degrees.

We are now past the mid-point of our 2006-2013 strategic plan
and are about to revisit it. I have recently appointed a new
Steering Committee and assigned its members the mission of
reviewing our current strategic plan and making recommendations for
adjustments and additions. This process will take many months and
will once again be broadly inclusive and transparent, with input
sought from all of the University's constituencies. You will soon
receive information about how you can contribute your thoughts and
ideas to our ongoing strategic planning effort.

Let me close by giving you my best wishes and my sincere
thanks for all you do for FAU!